Cervical cancer, primarily caused by persistent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women in developing countries. Although HPV vaccines are widely available in these regions, vaccine uptake remains persistently low. To address...

Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods in the development of healthy sexual health and relationships, as patterns of behaviour that develop during these life stages shape outcomes throughout the life course. Recent rises in notifications of certain sexually transmitted infections...

The 2024 ECDC influenza survey on national vaccination recommendations and coverage used and adapted the previous ECDC-funded survey conducted by the Vaccine European New Integrated Collaboration Effort (VENICE) project. The aim of the survey was to describe the evolution of seasonal influenza...

SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses are pathogens of major public health impact. Surveillance has played a vital role in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic as well as seasonal influenza, including public health actions such as updates on vaccines and antiviral drugs. The objective of this External...

When investigating and controlling outbreaks caused by zoonotic avian influenza viruses (AIV), a One Health approach is key. However, knowledge-sharing on AIV-specific One Health strategies, tools and action plans remains limited across the EU/EEA. It is crucial to establish responsibilities,...

This core protocol for ECDC studies of VE against hospitalisation with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) laboratory-confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 or with influenza, version 4.0, represents an update to the main elements for a multi-country hospital-based study of COVID-19 vaccine...

This paper reviews the history of the practice of quarantines, rediscovering the 19th century 'Sanitarian' movement in Britain that sprang from a recognition that quarantines had failed to stop the spread of diseases and were not cost-effective. To our knowledge, the key figure among the...

The COVID-19 vaccines played a pivotal role in safeguarding populations. Yet, vaccine hesitancy remained a significant barrier to increasing coverage rates, as many high-income countries faced prolonged vaccine refusal campaigns. In Japan, vaccine doses were administered under a reservation...

The rising number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) presents new challenges for vaccine distribution and the spread of diseases. How do forcibly displaced population inflows affect infectious diseases incidence in host communities? Can a policy intervention that vaccinates...

The purpose of the report is to provide information on access to hepatitis treatment in Ghana. This information is relevant to the application of international protection status determination (refugee status and subsidiary protection) and migration legislation in EU+ countries.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses continue to be widespread in wild bird populations across the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA). Viruses circulating in wild birds have spilled over to both wild and domestic/farmed animals, leading to outbreaks in poultry and other...

Mass gatherings can be anything from high-profile athletic events to religious gatherings or cultural events and festivals. ECDC aims to provide public health authorities in the EU/EEA countries with general considerations in relation to preparedness for organised mass gatherings, focusing on...

This document outlines the objectives and main elements of the ECDC framework for prevention of communicable diseases and related special health issues. It sets out a vision for strong, effective and evidence-based prevention of communicable disease in the European Union/European Economic Area...

The purpose of the report is to provide information on access to hepatitis treatment in Bangladesh. This information is relevant to the application of international protection status determination (refugee status and subsidiary protection) and migration legislation in EU+ countries.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has developed a monitoring system for hepatitis B and C to support countries in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) in monitoring responses to their epidemics of hepatitis B and C. The monitoring system is closely...

Ending tuberculosis (TB) by 2030 is one of the targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this goal it is necessary to implement a comprehensive strategy, including several interventions to prevent, diagnose and treat TB in a timely and effective manner. Among these...

The year 2022 marks the second year of recovery in the number of people diagnosed with TB and treated after an unprecedented drop in 2020 due to COVID-19-related disruptions. This has reversed the damaging impact of the pandemic on the number of people falling ill with TB. At the same time, the...

Seasonal influenza is a respiratory infectious disease that spreads globally through annual epidemics and occasional pandemics. Vaccination is the most effective means for preventing influenza infection. However, the effectiveness of influenza vaccines varies to some degree from season to...

The end of 2019 saw the emergence of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of October 2023, almost 276 million cases and more than 2.2 million deaths had been reported in the WHO European Region [1]. As of October...

Influenza is a disease of public health importance due to the substantial seasonal morbidity and mortality and the high pandemic potential of its aetiologic agents, influenza viruses. Diagnosis of influenza is mainly based on laboratory testing (i.e. molecular testing) of nasopharyngeal samples....

Lasting changes in women's employment followed the 1918 influenza pandemic in the United States. In the decades before the pandemic, consistently fewer women reported an occupation in cities that would go on to have longer interventions targeted at curbing influenza. This gap narrowed after the...

Infectious diseases depend on intensified social intercourse within large cities, resulting in a super-linear allometric scaling law with city size. But how this scaling relationship changes throughout an evolving pandemic is seldom studied and remains unclear. Here, we investigate allometric...

World War 1 exacerbated the cost of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 in two ways. First, it facilitated the spread the flu virus through the movement of clusters of infected soldiers and sailors. Second, it constrained public health measures that would have reduced mortality (as during the...

We assess whether the COVID-19 vaccine induces COVID-19 risky behavior (e.g., going to bars and restaurants) and thus reduces vaccine efficacy. A key empirical challenge is the endogeneity bias when comparing risk-taking by vaccination status since people choose whether to get vaccinated. To...

During several weeks in the second half of the year 2020, the cantons of Switzerland could choose to adopt the government-determined facial-mask policy, corresponding to mandatory facial-mask wearing on public transport, or a strict facial-mask policy, corresponding to mandatory facial-mask...

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease of 2019) pandemic is over; however, the probability of such a pandemic is about 2% in any year. There are international negotiations among almost 200 countries at the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning a global plan to deal with the next pandemic on the...

The end of 2019 saw the emergence of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome: coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of December 2023, eight vaccines (Comirnaty, Spikevax, Vaxzevria, Jcovden Valneva, Nuvaxovid, VidPrevtyn, and Bimervax) have been...

In this paper, we analyzed the role of credit consortia in supporting SMEs of the Italian region of Sardinia around and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic crisis. Credit consortia (or credit guarantee schemes) are financial companies whose institutional role is to support small firms needing bank...